EU exchange Bitcoin Central to operate as a PSP

bitcoinnews:

A post on Bitcoin Money describes the recent announcement from Paymium.  Excerpts:

“Paymium, operator of Bitcoin-Central exchange, will be operating that exchange following the regulations in the EU that apply to a Payment Services Provider (PSP).”
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“Bitcoin-Central will not hold customer EUR balances, and instead the funds will be held by Credit Mutuel, a major French bank. This service is made possible through Paymium’s partnership with Aqoba, a French PSP.”
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“[A statement from Paymium’s Mr. Francois] was that there would be no limitations regarding the citizenship of clients.”

 - http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/37390563082
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=129461.0 (Paymium’s Announcement)

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Businessweek - Dollar-Less Iranians Discover Virtual Currency

bitcoinnews:

Businessweek writer Max Raskin shares how there are a number of ways that Bitcoin is a value transfer system unlike any other. Excerpts:

“There’s one currency in Iran that has kept its value and can be used to purchase goods from abroad: bitcoins, the online-only currency.”
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“’I believe that bitcoin is, or will be in the future, a very effective tool for individuals who want to avoid sanctions, currency restrictions, and high inflation in countries such as Iran,’ [Jeremias Kangas of LocalBitcoins.com] wrote in an e-mail.”
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“Regulators can’t easily track the transactions, since bitcoins aren’t issued from a central server.”
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“At online store coinDL.com, shoppers can use bitcoins to buy Beyond Matter, the latest album from Iranian artist Mohammad Rafigh. Anyone in the U.S. downloading songs, which fetch .039 bitcoins or 45¢ each, risks violating U.S. sanctions.”
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“Rafigh has translated some bitcoin software into Farsi for his friends. ‘I love Iran, and if bitcoin is good for me, it can be good for more Iranians like me.’”
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“Iranians working or living abroad can send bitcoins to their families, who can use one of the online currency matchmaking services to find someone willing to exchange bitcoins for euros, rials, or dollars.”
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“The uncertainty [of Iran’s rial] has led some Iranian software developers to ask clients to pay them in bitcoins. ‘Anyone with a computer is able to own, send, and receive them.’”

 - http://buswk.co/Tuo2Ov
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128473.0 (Further discussion of the article)

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It's Here - Bitcoin Friday, Nov. 9th, 2012

bitcoinnews:

The first significant cross-vendor promotion of merchants who accept Bitcoin payments is underway.  Bitcoin Friday is a one-day sale event at many Bitcoin merchants as a unified attempt at advertising Bitcoin businesses.  Over 65 businesses are participating, including:

 - BitcoinStore.com (A recently launched electronic direct seller priced to compete against NewEgg and Amazon)
 - Coinabul.com (Gold and silver bullion)
 -  BitBrew.net (Coffee and tea shipped to your door. [BitBrew was one of the first merchants with a business model which only accepts Bitcoins as payment.)
 - BitcoinCoffee.com (Coffee shipped to you.)
 - Bees Brothers (Candy and honey)
 - BitLasers.com
 - GrassHillAlpacas.com (Yes, this is the merchant with the Alpaca socks - one of the first real-world good bitcoins could purchase)

Additionally there are other merchants include computing-related vendors that sell servers and others that rent  out server hosting or VPN services.

There are bricks and mortar merchants like Cups and Cakes, San Francisco and Vegemesta in Helsinki.  There is The Pao Cafe in New Market, New Hampshire and Room 77 in Berlin.

Even online gambling provides Bitcoin Friday offers.  BC-Casino will cover half of any losses nad StrikeSapphire.com also is running a special offer.

Other categories include magazine subscriptions and a property rental agency, 

Many Bitcoin exchanges are offering reduced rates for trading on Friday and merchant processors are offering extended deals to attract even more merchants.

 - http://BitcoinFriday.com
 - http://bit.ly/TQosTW  (Article on Bitcoin Friday in American Banker)
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=123251.0 (Additional discussion on Bitcoin Friday)

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  • Track Name

    Jon Matonis on Bitcoin

  • Album

    Financial Sense Newshour

  • Artist

    Jim Puplava

bitcoin:

Audio - Jon Matonis Interviewed By James Puplava

Forbes contributor and Bitcoin Foundation board member Jon Matonis (@JonMatonis) discusses Bitcoin with James Puplava of the Financial Sense Newshour.  Excerpts from the audio (mp3) of the interview:

James: Governments, if they had their way, would do away with cash.  That way they could monitor and track all transactions and supervise the underground economy. Do you think physical cash will ever by fully extinct?
Jon:The cashless society utopia is a hot topic right now.  The [proponents] all seem to neglect the privacy and non-traceability aspect of cash.  I always encourage people to resist any attempts at digital cash unless you can still have the same two core attributes as cash has.

James: How many years before the government sees Bitcoin as a threat.
Jon: They will definitely try to come after Bitcoin, just as they have against BitTorrent and the file sharing of films, music and other copyrighted material.  They are not successful at preventing file sharing so they go against the end-points and the aggregators like Kim Dotcom in New Zealand.  They can attack the perimeter but that doesn’t address the problem.  The analogy can be carried over to Bitcoin as well — they aren’t going to be able to bring down the peer-to-peer network and instead would likely control the flow of funds to and from the exchanges.   With one or two thousand exchanges worldwide there would be resiliency.

James: What are Bitcoin’s strengths and weaknesses?
Jon: The main strength is the resiliency of the network and that the network itself is immune from shutdown by State actors or non-State actors.  […] I’m convinced that no matter what type of digital currency system that people come up with, if you don’t address the confiscation issue you are only setting yourself up for abysmal failure down the road.  As soon as you become successful, you have a target on your back.

Length: 31 minutes.  (mp3)

Previous Post - Twitter: @BitcoinMoney

Summary - Bitcoin Ends October Down Nearly 10%, Still Up 137% YTD 2012

bitcoinnews:

Bitcoin Money blog (@BitcoinMoney) gives a monthly wrapup on Bitcoin for the month of October, 2012. Excerpts:

“The closing price of $11.20 USD was down more than a dollar from the previous month’s close resulting in a nearly 10% drop for the month. For 2012, where the price opened at a $4.72 level, the price rise from January 1st is now at the level of 137%.”
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“What might be surprising is that the month ended down just 10% after the disaster that October 2012 essentially was for the Bitcoin ecosystem as a whole.”
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“A promise of relief arrived with the announcement of Bitcoin-Central’s BTC/GBP market. Further relief arrived with Blockchain.info/wallet’s Instant Online Bank Transfer which is now available in the UK and elsewhere in the EU.”
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“Emerging during the darkest part of the shutdown storm was Coinbase’s launch of its BTC/USD exchange. This allows a Coinbase user to make bitcoin purchases paid for with funds drawn from the user’s bank account.”
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“Banking issues were just one challenge for the exchanges as heavy distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks took many exchanges down at one point or another during the month.”
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“The current development focus is on resolving the immediate scalability issues that exist when running a full Bitcoin.org client node. Significant progress with this occurred in October when the ultraprune capability was merged into mainline — a prerequisite to it being included in a future release.”
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“The 230,400 bitcoins issued which Bitcoin miners took in during the month is valued at $2.70 million using the average daily valuation for the month of $11.72. Miners fared less well in October as the result of a rising difficulty — 15% higher at the end of the month versus the level at the beginning as well as the decline in the exchange rate.”
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“Later this month, at block 210,000, the block reward mining subsidy drops by half. This halving of the amount of currency issued means miner’s revenues will drop in half as well.”
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“The herd-like mentality of speculators means that demand can disappear in an instant and a deep selloff can result. Twice during October were cliff dives of 15% or more.”
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“A significant indicator that Bitcoin has the potential to become much more widely used surfaced with the ECB’s policy brief on Virtual Currency Schemes. The 55-page brief describes Bitcoin as having the potential to have a negative impact on central banks.”

- http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/34853623626

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